© National Portrait Gallery 2025
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Canberra, ACT 2600, Australia
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National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 Finalist
Portrait of my aunty Helen Garner. Taken on medium format film, at our family reunion at my dad's home in Ruffy, Victoria. Helen's work as an author celebrates the beauty that is inherent in ordinary moments, and I wanted to capture her in a similarly unspectacular act. Here she is shutting the gate to keep her daughter's dog, Smokey, away from the spit roast being prepared for dinner behind me. I only took one photo as I could tell that Helen had revealed herself to the camera as she does in her writing – with rawness, vulnerability and strength.
The exhibition is selected from a national field of entries, reflecting the distinctive vision of Australia's aspiring and professional portrait photographers and the unique nature of their subjects.
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